The Record of Unusual Creatures

Vivian rubbed her hand across her forehead, tired from absorbing two foreign memories in such a short time. Now, these memories began to fill the gaps in her memory bank. She began to understand what had happened here and to herself ten thousand years ago, but not all her questions had an answer.

“I’ve yet figured out the specific cause and effect, but the memory of the split began only from the moment she arrived on the planet ten thousand years ago.” By calling the ‘evil spirit’ a split, she must have figured out the nature of the ‘evil spirit’. “I saw she crossed a large field of chaos and of light and fell onto the planet. At that time, the planet had been flung from the Plane of Dreams into the crack in the Wall of Reality, where darkness was covering the planet, and the planet was losing its heat rapidly. She used her strength to preserve the ecosystem. The picture is a bit fuzzy, but I guess it would tally with the myths of the locals.”

Vivian sighed as if something was bothering her. “It’s kind of hard to describe it. I’m not even sure whether I should to talk about it in first-person or third-person perspective. The one who arrived first on the planet was neither the split nor me but a complete individual. Very quickly, we split into two. I was flung to the Earth through the first gateway of Inferno in history, and the other half of me stayed behind on this planet and became the Goddess worshipped by the locals. In the subsequent one hundred years, she induced the First Born to make the barrier that you are seeing here, and led people to build Dorasil and the underground city of the wraiths while all the while, I was on Earth hunting mammoths on the Great Plains during the end of the glacial period. However, I had totally forgotten the fact that I had split after I arrived on Earth.”

Hao Ren grabbed his hair trying to make sense of what Vivian was saying. “Do you know what caused you to split?”

Vivian shook her head. “I don’t know, but it could be due to the damage on the Wall of Reality. The only image I saw that might offer some clue was that ‘I’ stood on the upper surface of the planet Inferno, where there was a huge vortex portal. On the other side of the portal was icy river and plains, which should be the Earth. One half of me was going into the gate, the other half of me stayed back in Inferno. All the while, I was seeing things from a first-person perspective, which meant I was watching myself leaving this world, and I stayed back. After that, all it was all in a first-person perspective… Doggie, hang on there, don’t pass out!”

Lily laid her head on the table, half-dead. Her ears drooped and her eyes swirled. “Battie, you’d better keep the details to yourself, I couldn’t make sense of your first-person, third-person perspectives.”

Others also nodded repeatedly. “Us, too.”

Vivian scratched her hair in embarrassment. “Well, okay. As long as you know what I mean. Let me just call the one staying behind in Inferno the ‘split’ though we both were supposed to be two equal split bodies. Let’s just call it this way since I’m the only one survive.”

Hao Ren put two and two together and figured out the timeline. Vivian had split almost as soon as she arrived on Inferno, and she was sent to Earth after that. Ignoring the negligible time she spent in Inferno, her arrival on Earth was still roughly forty-eight hours before the Goddess fell, and Vivian and her ‘split’ lost contact completely after that. The one came to the Earth became the oldest otherworldling on the planet, and the other ‘half’ of Vivian in Inferno became the legendary Goddess of in the eyes of the locals.

However, what happened after that, why did the ‘Goddess’ in Inferno became a mad and grievous spirit devoid of rationality were still unresolved.

“She swapped out the will of the First Born with her own to keep the planet stable, but there was a problem; she became insane as a result.” Vivian’s brows pulled together as she recounted what happened to her split body. “The First Born on this planet wasn’t sane, it was one of the mad guardians. The First Born had created the twisted creatures we saw on the upper surface during the rebellion. To suppress it, the ‘other I’ had chosen to assimilate to the First Born, and then control the First Born to assimilate to the planet.

“I don’t know how she did it. All I knew was she removed the soul of the First Born and destroyed its brain. She built the underground city and connected herself to the main nervous node of the First Born to control this creature by sealing themselves together. The lullaby of the ancient souls and the lightning stone columns are the safety switches. Since then, this insurance system has been running, but—”

“But something went wrong with the most critical part of the system.” Nangong Sanba cut in, rubbing his forehead. “Did the remnant consciousness of the First Born corrupt the other ‘you’? Or was it because she was suffering mentally from the long-term confinement?”

“Possible.” Vivian nodded. “I couldn’t see how my split went insane in the remnant memory; it was chaotic. However, one thing is certain; when ‘the other I’ chose to swap out the First Born’s brain, she already foresaw she might be losing the control one day. The underground city, the lullaby ritual of the ancient souls, the sealing crystal, the chains and tentacles in the surroundings all combined becoming a cage. She built that so that when she went crazy, the cage would lock her in.”

“She actually had that premonition?” Hao Ren scratched his jaw as if in deep thought. “How long would the insurance system last if we haven’t come?”

Vivian thought for a moment and said, “Thousands of years, or just decades. Too many uncertainties. If something were to go wrong with Gragon and other ancient souls, the entire system could have been brought down. Let’s cross our finger and pray that it won’t happen. Anyway, we wouldn’t depend on luck even if this place could last another thousand years.”

A crucial question suddenly crossed Hao Ren’s mind. “Wait a second. Since you have ‘reunited’ with that split, who is controlling the planet now?”

“No one.” Vivian pressed her lips together. “The soul and the thinking organ of the First Born are gone. The ‘other me’ whose brain was controlling the First Born has also gone. Now the First Born is brainless, literally. It’s not dead, neither it is alive. That’s why I let Gragon maintain the ‘lullaby’ ritual. The lullaby would not only comfort the First Born, but also keep the nervous system working so that the tentacles would not have any convulsive movement; you know, if that thing sneezes, the planet will be torn apart. So this cannot go on forever. The ancient souls have been working so hard for the last ten thousand years; I can’t bear to let them go on like this forever.”

While saying, Vivian looked at Hao Ren. Hao Ren understood the signal; he had to find a solution. He took out the MDT. “Analyze this ‘lullaby’ and see what kind of system it is,” he ordered.

The MDT projected a holographic display showing many tower-like structures. “A series of large electrodes and permanent generators would be able to replace the hardware, but we also need a set of software based on how the ritual of the ancient souls works. I will need the original design drawing of the city and information about the ‘lullaby’ approach, with or without annotations.”

Vivian quickly said, “Gragon has it.”

“Great! One problem solved.” Hao Ren clapped his hands. “We will then build a large computer-controlled electric shocker in Dorasil and free the ancient souls from the ritual.”

Hao Ren looked at Vivian. “Shall we discuss about your splitting problem? Since first ‘evil spirit’ came from you, was the one that we summoned from the magic book also from you?” Hao Ren asked.

Vivian forced a smile. “I guess so.”

Lily shrunk her head into the neck. “Are you able to control your division? Would you split suddenly while cooking at home, and the split goes on rampage killing?”

“I think… probably, maybe, should be, perhaps… not?”

Lily’s face turned green instantly. “Couldn’t you be more certain?”